[rescue] Ultra AXe question

[Lionel Peterson]

Hello all,
As I am getting various systems ready to be "disposed of" at TCF this weekend, I came across my old AXe-based system. For those unfamiliar, it is an ATX motherboard with an UltraSPARC IIi CPU running at 300 MHz w/256K cache. It takes regular Ultra 5/10 RAM, IDE drives, and has a built-in 4 Meg video card, good enough for 1024x768 @ 24 bit color.

Anyway, I booted the system up, and I found I had installed Solaris 10 on it, and booting into the Java Desktop was an experience... On this box the only purpose that interface serves is to make CDE look better. After logging into a CDE session, I made the mistake of starting up the System Management Console - wow... that took a while!

Anyway, anyone have ideas on what O/S to run on this system so it seems a bit, uhm, snappier? It has 512 Meg RAM (should be reasonable), though I suspect the 20 Gig HD installed is a bit slow...

I had thought to put it in a 1U "appliance" case, but I'll have to increase the performance a bit before I can justify buying the case ;^)

Advice appreciated - thanks!

Oh, and I will have some Ultra 1E, Ultra 2, Ultra 5 (and maybe an Ultra 10) and Ultra 30 systems for sale at TCF, anyone going interested in a machine or two? After I sort them out I'll share a list with anyone interested before the weekend. I'll ship the system if you are interested, but it will be at your expense.